In Niccolo Ammanati’s novel “I Am not Scared”, several incidences portray loyalty, friendship, and betrayal among several other themes in the story. The events of the story happen in 1978 in a small Italian town Acqua Traverse where a little boy Mitchell is portrayed as a hero with extraordinary friendship and loyalty characteristics despite being brought up in an extremely cruel background. One day, while playing with his friends, he discovers a little boy Fillipo chained in a deep hole and left all alone. The boy seems sick and cold. Scared of the discovery, Mitchell runs away but later on returns to the boy. He discovers that he is a rich family’s son kidnapped by their neighbors who demand ransom for his release. He also frequently witnesses his father Pino bashing his mother. However, despite the cruel background, his actions of saving Filippo display intense friendship basing on the fact that he barely knew the boy. His father also threatens to cut off Filippos’ ears
The novel portrays betrayal in several incidences. Michel discovers Filippo chained in a deep cellar; being a small boy, he is scared to tell anyone as he does not know whom to trust at this point. Despite his fear, he ends up breaking the news of his discovery to his best friend Salvatore as he is the only person he can rely on. Despite coming from a rich family, Salvatore sees no value in the secret regarding the discovery as an opportunity to get things his father’s money cannot buy him. He takes advantage of the situation and betrays their friendship. Another incidence of betrayal is when despite having faith in his family at first, Mitchel eventually is betrayed by his own family and people from his village learning that they had a hand in the whole incidence of Fillipo’s kidnapping. This is astonishing to the little boy as he does not know whom to trust any more. The fact that Skull, the leader of Mitchel’s gang, orders a girl member of the gang to expose her private body parts to the whole gang also displays betrayal. Since the girl was not just a friend to all the other gang members, the action was cruel to her as she did not expect a friend to pass down such cruel orders at her. Protecting the girl, Mitchell opposes Skull’s orders and calls for seconding in which the whole gang supports him. Skull, in turn, orders Mitchell to explore a dangerous lonely farmhouse as a punishment; this turns out to display betrayal by the gang on Mitchell.
The story also portrays incidences of friendship. Despite being scared of his discovery of Filippo, Mitchell trusts his best friend Salvatore and tells the news of his discovery to him. This shows their friendship as he could not trust anyone else enough to tell them about his discovery. Mitchell also displays extraordinary friendship when he saves Filippo despite not knowing him. He is brave enough to go against his cruel father and does so for a boy he barely knows as he risks losing everything just to help him. The fact that Mitchell is brave enough to oppose Skull’s orders to a girl in the gang also displays loyalty and friendship. He goes on to take severe punishment of visiting an abandoned farmhouse all alone for opposing the gang leaders commands just for the girl. The fact that the children played throughout the summers and had dangerous adventures together also displays friendship as it takes friendship to be a member of a gang even though we see incidences of betrayal among the gang’s members.
Despite the many incidences of betrayal of friendship in the story, several cases clearly bring out loyalty in the story. Mitchell is loyal enough to risk losing many things including his family’s love just to save a boy he barely knows. After the discovery that his family had a hand in Filippo’s kidnapping, he keeps it a secret and goes on to help the boy. This is despite the fact that he knows his father is a very cruel man and his actions may have terrible consequences for him. We also see that Mitchell is loyal to his gang members as he is brave enough to oppose the orders put on a girl in the gang to expose her private parts to the rest of the gang members as a punishment from the gang leader Skull. He is brave enough to take the punishment of visiting an abandoned farmhouse as the consequence of his actions. He is also loyal enough to tell his best friend of his discovery despite the fact that his friend betrays him by taking advantage of the situation.
In conclusion, the novel displays several cases when friendship and betrayal are connected, for example, the incidence between Mitchell and his best friend. Friendship among the gang members is broken by the actions of the gang leader Skull who orders a girl to do obscene things. Loyalty and friendship is portrayed by the brave actions of Mitchell opposing the orders given out by Skull. Helping Filippo despite barely knowing him also shows loyalty.